Most important, i want to recognize my wife, jana, and our children, liza, charlie, and sam. I also want to thank Speaker Boehner for almost five years he led this house, for nearly 25 years he served it. Not many people can match his accomplishments. The offices he held, the laws he passed, but what really sets john apart is hes a man of character, a true class act. He is without a question the gentleman from ohio. So please join me in saying one last time, thank you Speaker Boehner. Now i know how he felt. Its not until you hold this gavel, stand in this spot, look out and see all 435 members of this house as if all americas sitting right in front of you. Its not till then that you feel it. The weight of responsibility. The grambity of the moment. You graphity of the moment. As i stand here i cant help but think of something harry truman once said. The day after Franklin Roosevelt died, truman became president and he told a group of reporters, if you ever pray, pray for me now. When
We are not making any assumptions about irans future policies because we base our process approach on observable facts. What we we see is that iran continues to engage in play and the secretary and division in the region and it continues to detain several american citizens, and our estimation without justification, and to ransom policies are one reason why we are working so closely and supportively with our partners in the region, including the gulf states and israel. In fact, we have established an unprecedented level of cooperation with israel on military issues, we are correlating in forcing sanctions and in trying to stop the Tears Organization such as has months and has below from getting financing and weapons that they seek. We also support israels right to defend itself and its citizens, we do that in many ways. We also support all of the gcc countries in the work we did in camp david and we will continue to do, and i even reaffirmed when i was out in the region a couple of days
People, who would like to see more cooperation, a more elevated debate in washington, but feel trapped by the demands of gettingives elected. By the noise coming out of your bass. You have told me. Means if we want a better politics, and i am addressing the American People now, it is not enough to just change a congressman or a senator or even a president ; we have to change the system to reflect our better selves. I think we have got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around. [applause]] i believe we have to reduce the influence of money in our politics, so that a handful of families and hidden interests cant bankroll our elections and if our existing approach to Campaign Finance reform cant pass muster in the courts, we need to Work Together to find a real solution. Because it is a problem. Likemost of you do not raising money. I know. I have done it. Easier tot to make it vote, not harder. We ne
And whether we should abolish citizensarned born as president. You can weighin by social media. At can post a comment facebook or leave an email. Here is the piece in the writes. On post. She we will read more from this piece. We will take your phone calls as soon as they start coming in. Citizenhe natural born test the abolished . A couple of comments here. Lots more comments are coming in. We will go to calls. Good morning. Are you there . We can hear you. Caller i learned you had to be a citizen of the United States, born in the United States to run for president. It said you had to be born in the United States. You had to be a citizen of the United States. Thats what i was taught. I mustve been taught wrong. Ahmed writes from twitter this morning. Write rcus goes on to we have marked on the line from ohio. You should be a natural born. His only in issue because ted cruz made such an argument about president obama. At least he was born in the United States. Sorry, rules of gatsby ch
[applause] this is america. We want to make it easier for people to participate. Over the course of this year ii intend to travel the country and push for reform to do just that. But. But i can do these things on my own. Change is not political process and not just who gets elected but having elected will only happen to the American People demand. It depends on you. That is what is meant by government of, by, and for the people. What i am suggesting is hard it is a lot easier to be cynical. To accept the change is not possible in politics is hopeless and the problem is all the folks who were elected dont care and they believe that our voices and actions dont matter. But if we give up now that we forsake a better future. Those with money and power will gain greater control over the decisions that could send a young soldier to work for allow another Economic Disaster or roll back the rights and Voting Rights that generations of americans fought for. And then has frustration grows there w